This is an apt answer to the question: "What would an ideal food label look like?:"

Even the simplest information — a red, yellow or green “traffic light,” for example — would encourage consumers to make healthier choices. That might help counter obesity, a problem all but the most cynical agree is closely related to the consumption of junk food.

Of course, labeling changes like this would bring cries of hysteria from the food producers who argue that all foods are fine, although some should be eaten in moderation. To them, a red traffic-light symbol on chips and soda might as well be a skull and crossbones. But traffic lights could work: indeed, in one study, sales of red-lighted soda fell by 16.5 percent in three months.

Having recently spent time at a roundtable with transparency advocates (including one author of this excellent book), I can attest to the fact that only the clearest signals tend to get through the noise of an era of information overload.